HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by JK Rowling starts really slowly (did we really need a blow-by-blow recap of the first book?) but once it picks up steam I can see why it remains one of my favorites in the series: It’s a strong plot and one where I never saw the Big Reveal coming which is always a plus. Rowling also does a good job of worldbuilding, introducing us to the Ministry of Magic and Cornelius Fudge, Mudbloods, showing where Lucius Malfoy’s allegiances lie and filling in Voldemort’s early years. On the downside, Lockhart is way too buffoonish to work even as comic relief while the Dursleys, as in the first book, are too abusive to be funny (seriously, trying to hit Harry with a frying pan? Those things are heavy!). Over all, though, excellent.THE MOON OF GOMRATH was Alan Garner’s sequel to Weirdstone of Brisingamen, in which the chance release of a demon creature from its tomb coinciding with Susan’s loss of her magic bracelet turns her into a possession target. Trying to free her, Colin begins steering them down a path that leads to unleashing Britain’s old, wild magic, which poses even more problems. Rereading I find this much less effective as it’s very much part of a series rather than a stand-alone—too much of this feels like it’s setting up Susan for future adventures in the magical world (though I didn’t have that feeling when I first read it—the third book in the series wasn’t out—so that may be subjective).
The final volume of Ursula Vernon’s DIGGER series is surprisingly low-key as Grim-Eyes, Ed, Murai and Digger face not only their demon adversary but Jhura’s fanatical cultists. So low-key, in fact, it could easily have been an anti-climax, but Vernon makes it work. That may reflect, that, as she says in the afterword, the theme if there is one is that hard work and human decency ought be enough to win the day (even if, in the real world, they’re not).BPRD: Garden of Souls by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis (already in the Hellboy chronology) has Abe receive a mysterious message that sends him and Daimio off to the Pacific to hunt down clues to Langdon Caul, the man Abe used to be. What they find is a centuries old mummy and a secret society with an agenda to save humanity by killing millions of people. A good entry, though the casting shows how much blander the current BPRD cast is.